The Petworth real estate market is booming and I expect that to continue in 2012. Petworth is one of the few areas in DC that still offers affordable homes. The Petworth neighborhood is metro accessible with easy access to downtown. Young professionals and families are moving to the area because of the convenience and affordable housing prices. I consider Petworth to be Columbia Heights Jr.  The rise in prices in Columbia Heightshas been caused by investor activity in the commercial and residential sectors.  Columbia Heights has seen massive improvements to its main commercial corridor along 14th St NW.  Now Petworth is starting to see a lot of changes to its main commercial corridor (Georgia Ave NW).  Petworth has seen the following shops and restaurants…

The Washington DC real estate market continues to be one of the strongest in the nation. It was a busy weekend out there at open houses in DC. While I was out showing buyers homes it was sometimes challenging to get them through the doors! I believe the warmer than usual weather as well as high demand due to very low interest rates is playing a big role in the high activity level. In my opinion the warm weather has created a earlier then ever spring boom in the Washington DC real estate market. The spring market looks like it will be a continuation of the current Washington DC real estate market with perhaps a little more inventory and a lot more demand. According to MRIS the Washington DC real estate market inventory level in January was down 27.59% from…

Columbia Heights Mansion Converted to Luxury Condos

The pace at which developers are buying up dilapidated old row houses in Columbia Heights is astonishing. If a property needs updating to bring it up to market value, then it's common to see multiple offers from local real estate developers. One of the largest row houses to be renovated in the past few months is on the 3500 block of 13th Street NW in Columbia Heights. We spoke with the developer about his plans for the once stately property. Plans are in the works to convert the 4000 square foot plus building into two luxury condos, each of which will be approximately 2000 square feet and be 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths. The bottom floor condo will be offered at 879k and the top floor condo will be offered…

Last evening I met with a homeowner regarding his decision to complete a Prince Georges County Short Sale.   The meeting was initiated by the homeowners lender.  In my experience this setup is rare.  Typically, in these situations it is the borrower(homeowner) who must contact the lender to inform them that they would like to do a short sale.  The fact that the lender has reached out to the borrower to initiate a Prince Georges County short sale shows you the situation that most lenders are faced with.  In the last few years lenders have had to adjust their loss mitigation efforts due to the mistakes they have made when foreclosing on their borrower.  That may all change soon.  Last week 49 state attorneys general came to a settlement with the nation's…

A lot of investors and homebuyers ask me about buying a Washington DC foreclosure.  In this blog I will talk about the process a bank must go through to foreclose and where to search for them. 

First, you must understand that in Washington DC there are very few foreclosures on the market currently.  It has been over a year since banks have foreclosed on a property in Washington DC.  This is due to the robo signing issue(which was just resolved last week) and the mediation law that the DC council put in place in December 2011.  The mediation law forces banks to meet face to face with the borrower to prevent a Washington DC foreclosure.  In the second half of 2011 only 25 notices of default were issued by banks compared with over 1000 issued in 2010.  A…

Petworth short sales are a great opportunity for homeowners and investors to buy property at a discount but the risks need to be understood.  The biggest risk with purchasing a short sale is the time that it takes to go to settlement.  The time that it takes to close a short sale can easily exceed 90 days from the time the seller accepts your offer.  Buyers that are on a time crunch may not be able to purchase a short sale because of this.  If you need to move by a specific date, then you should consider a regular sale or perhaps a foreclosure.  A foreclosure sale can also have delays which are usually related to title. 

There are 15 Petworth short sales currently on the market.  The price range of these properties is from $75,000 to $425,000.  There…

Washington DC transfer and recordation taxes are part of your closing costs when buying or selling real estate.  Payment of Washington DC transfer and recordation taxes are typically split between buyer and seller.  Make sure you carefully exam your contract regarding who is paying the Washington DC transfer and recordation taxes.  Purchasers often ask the seller to pay part or all of their Washington DC transfer and recordation taxes.  Your lender should provide you with an estimated costs of closing.  The HUD-1 should be reviewed thoroughly before settlement to understand who is paying for these closing costs.  You can review a blank HUD-1 here.  The taxes will be written into your HUD-1 on lines 1201 through 1206 and you can review this at the time of…

Welcome to the Rock Creek Realty blog! My goal is to cover what’s happening in different neighborhoods throughout DC including upcoming events, tasty restaurants and reasonably priced bars, general real estate tips and, of course, Rock Creek Realty news.

We’ll start the first blog about a trip to Cleveland Park.

Last Friday night the wife and I had an impromptu date night. She makes the decisions (ha) and decided on sushi. We live in 16th St Heights and didn’t want to trek all over the city, so we headed over to Cleveland Park for some sushi rolls at Spices. Cleveland Park was alive with people, pets and cars creeping for a parking spot at 7:30pm on a Friday night. On the way to Spices we passed St Arnolds mussels bar, which was crowded, so we made a…